EwA Field Work: The Corridor of Life

We’ll be in the field this month!

We’re excited to announce that our Associate (Sharan) will be in Borneo on a 2 week program from 21st September supporting reforestation in the Kinabatangan area. The volunteer project is run by Ape Malaysia and is dedicated to work with the local Orang Sungai villagers to collaborate and educate about conservation as well as replenishing the original forests which were cut down for mainly logging and agriculture. This is her second visit to this project and it will be interesting to find out how reforestation has expanded in the last 4 years and what current challenges there are as well. It will also be good to compare activities with reforestation around the Tanjung Puting National Park which has suffered due to palm oil plantations (where she worked 2 years ago with FNPF).

Sharan is aiming to do some live blogging and videos (Wi-Fi permitting) so watch our Facebook page! And if there are any questions or information you would like us to ask please let us know, email us email us or correspond with us on Facebook or any other EwA social media.

About the Corridor of Life:

The Kinabatangan River is the longest river in Sabah, Malaysia at 560 km. The river runs from the Heart of Borneo through tropical rainforests, floodplain forests and mangroves before merging into the Sulu-Sulawesi Sea. Forming the epicenter of an amazing biodiversity, this area is also earmarked for agriculture and development. The Corridor of Life, as it is now known, sits squarely in the Lower Kinabatangan Region, requires concerted long term effort to ensure the wildlife has protected habitat to continue surviving the onslaught of man and development. The Corridor of Life spans 26,000 hectares of gazetted wildlife sanctuaries. The area includes areas that have been severely damaged by logging and plantations and requires urgent need for replanting to restore the habitat of over 250 birds, 50 mammals, 20 reptile species, 1060 plant species, countless insects and many, many others that have yet to be identified. The largest mammal in the area is the pygmy elephant while the largest of the 10 primate species found here is the orang-utan.